Somebody reminded me recently that Barry Bonds was a huge Eckstein fan after the two toured Japan together. It's true. Barry Bonds basically wrote the template for dozens of David Eckstein profiles in the years to come. This is what Barry Bonds said about David Eckstein in 2003:

"He's special. I watched him make one great play, and it brought a tear to my eye to think that someone could will himself to be a winning major league player.

"He's one of my favorite players ever. I told him that he's a gift from God. Everything is difficult for him, yet he gets it done and done well."

Bobby Abreu had two home runs in Sunday's game, the second off the 'D' ring catwalk high above the right field seats at Tropicana Field.

It was his first multi-home run game this season and gave him 20 home runs for the season to go with 21 stolen bases. It is the ninth 20-20 season of his career. Only two players – one family – have had more 20-20 seasons. Barry and Bobby Bonds each did it 10 times during their careers.

If you believed that Manny Ramirez would hear mostly boos in his return to Dodger Stadium on Thursday night, don't bother to read the rest of this column's first item.

I'm not saying you should cheer him or boo him; I just understand why Dodgers fans did what they did, and why they threw plastic syringes at the feet of Barry Bonds. I am not condoning the latter.

It is because Manny is THEIR GUY, just like Barry was San Francisco's guy.

And I wish Angels fans would have their guy or guys again, because then Chone Figgins would have at least been second to Evan Longoria in the All-Star vote, and Torii Hunter would have been voted an All-Star starter.

Today's lesson: Lou Gehrig was not "the luckiest man on the face of the earth." Can't be, because Gehrig was only fifth in career RBIs.

One of the comments to my recent Garret Anderson post concludes, about batting average with runners in scoring position (RISP): "I really think this is heavily influenced by luck, and not very useful in evaluating a player."

Thanks, Chris. Meet Hank Aaron, the luckiest man, with a record 2,297 career RBIs and his career RISP of .319.

Alex Rodriguez using performance-enhancing drugs, and eventually admitting it, is a big story.

No dispute there. It is as big as Alex Rodriguez is in baseball, and that's large.

But we sometimes go to extremes in this business.

ESPN's Jayson Stark, in a column that documents how Rodriguez has helped destory the game's history, says the Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Mark McGwire will be excluded from the Hall of Fame because of their transgressions, as is Pete Rose.

I disagree. I think they will all get in, not as quickly as it once appeared they should, but eventually. The difference in them and Rose is that Rose has never been on the ballot. I firmly believe if he had, he would be in.

For some reason these days I keep thinking about 10-year contracts for baseball players. Alex Rodriguez has had TWO. Derek Jeter has one. Todd Helton signed an 11-year extension back in 2001.

I understand the double attraction for A-Rod. And I really do appreciate what Jeter has done for the Yankees and how the Rockies felt about Helton.

But giving a player a 10-year contract that starts the year he turns 29 (Mark Teixeira) is a tough call, even with hindsight.

Looking back, I wouldn't have given one to Barry Bonds ... and I would have been wrong. But I had covered his father on the Angels and didn't believe the son, a left fielder, was as good an athlete as Bobby Bonds, who had a stronger arm, more power at an earlier age, was faster and played right and center fields.

He also writes he expects the bidding to fall in the $160 million to $200 million range.

Olney then presents a very strong case that the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals should get out of the Teixeira bidding since their franchises can't be turned around by one player. Nor can one player bring fans into the ballpark by his presence, unless it's Cal Ripken Jr. or Barry Bonds.

Using his Baltimore writing background, Olney makes the point that even with Teixeira, fans won't flock to Camden Yards until the Orioles start winning again.